Honey bees' genetic code unlocked

[Jon]

Eric or his long lost German twin Yzalich has reappeared on BKF so in his honour I am starting a thread on bee genetics in a forlorn attempt to relive the good old days of banter about diploid drones and skilifts.

Gavin can educate us all about this epigenetics lark.


Researchers say they have unlocked the genetic secrets of honey bees' high sensitivity to environmental change.

Scientists from the UK and Australia think their findings could help show links between nutrition, environment and the insects' development.

It could, they suggest, offer an insight into problems like Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious cause of mass bee deaths globally.

The findings appear in Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096517481200166X).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20667948

[gavin]

You know, I quite liked it when we just accepted that larvae treated like royalty became queens. Does it matter that much that histones get altered in the process? Heresy, I know. Other views may differ. Mine probably will tomorrow.

Doesn't explain CCD though.

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[Poly Hive]

Being ignorant I looked up "histone" and duly read material which meant nothing to me due to my lack of science, but it was all prefaced by this word. "Hypothesis".

Hmm....

Let me know when they decide please?

PH

[GRIZZLY]

Am I right in believing that a "histone" is the cotton reel around which the gene strands are wound ?. What that has to do with my everyday beekeeping defys my imagination.

[Feckless Drone]

Am I right in believing that a "histone" is the cotton reel around which the gene strands are wound ?. What that has to do with my everyday beekeeping defys my imagination.

Yes, histone proteins help package the long pieces of DNA; the packaging can change if the histones are modified and this can influence genes, that guide synthesis of RNA and proteins, to be on or off, and when the switches are applied. So, chemical changes (environment, nutrition, infection!) can have an influence on the packaging and use of the genomic material and can determine outcomes of a plan encoded on a genome, this is epigenetics. Queen bee development is one of the best and obvious examples of epigenetics in action but most research in this area involves studying the link to a number of human diseases and conditions. Big Pharma are hot on this so are other companies - feckless shill

[gavin]

We should have a chat sometime, FD/FS, if you are particularly wise in the ways of the histone molecule. I'm sitting looking at some results that demonstrate that amongst the genes potato had to alter on its journey through the S American civilisations, histone seems to have played a major part.

Told you my view would differ today.

Ain't it great, the expertise at our fingertips on SBAi? I can think of another two forum members who could usefully join that discussion down the pub - if they weren't so far away.